Advertising - Social Issues - Sexual Predators Can Hide In Your Child's Smartphone

The aim of this ad was to make parents think more about who their children may be interacting with. there have been numerous cases in the news recently of paedophiles being caught in the act of grooming youngsters online. School educate children on such things like grooming and what is and isn't appropriate. But parents also have to be aware of the problem. With new technology, which is connecting more and more people together, 
 children are more accessible than ever to sexual predators.



Parents may believe their child is simply texting or 'facebook'ing, so they need a shocking wake up call to an issue that effects hundreds of vulnerable children each day. The extremely uncomfortable image of a child being touched is enough of a shock factor. The position of the hand shows dominance and control. The sexual predator in this case has all the control, without going noticed. The fact that the hand is barely seen reflects the issue that this sort of behaviour can be easily hidden so parents and carers need to be vigilant. 

Producing an advert like this could be seen as a little ooutrageous Although the audience is meant to feel uncomfortable when they see the image - when I has shown the image to a friend of mine they called it perverted. Although they understood the message and the reasoning behind the image, he believed that some sexual predators that this advertisement is trying to warn about, may in fact enjoy the image. I can see his point of view, as it does look like a child in the picture - I don't know many adults who own baby pink jeans - but I highly doubt a model child was used in the image. 

Whether you consider the image to be too risky or not it definitely sends a message out. I may not be a parent myself, but the emotions evoked by this advert have really made me think about the lack of control over social networking and connectivity parents today have.

Information found via; 

 http://www.boredpanda.com/powerful-social-advertisements/